The UC Irvine women’s basketball team (13-8, 8-2) defeated the CSUN Matadors (7-12, 3-6) 65-52 on Saturday, Feb. 5 at the Bren Events Center.
The Anteaters were led by sophomore guard Chloe Webb who finished with 20 points, seven steals, three assists, and four rebounds. Additionally, sophomore guard Jayde Cadee scored 20 points, going 6-11 from the three point line and added four rebounds in 34 minutes. Redshirt freshman guard Kayla Williams also added 17 points to the Anteaters victory.
UCI started out strong defensively, getting two stops to begin the game including a charge drawn by Williams. Webb scored the first two points of the game on a driving layup assisted by Cadee, who then added a three pointer assisted by Webb to give UCI an early 5-2 lead. The teams continued to trade buckets until a three pointer by Webb put UCI down 11-14, ending the first quarter.
CSUN started the second quarter on fire. Following a three pointer by Williams to cut the Anteater deficit to five, the Matadors scored the next 13 points taking a 32-14 lead with 2:29 left in the first half. Cadee finally ended the five minute scoring drought for the Anteaters with two three point shots assisted by Webb.
The Anteaters only had three players on the board to end the half. Cadee led the team with nine points shooting 3-6 from downtown, followed by Webb with eight points and Williams with three points.
Faced with this uphill battle, the Anteaters came into the second half eager to redeem themselves. Webb and Cadee continued to knock down long-balls to cut the lead to 10. On the defensive side, UCI applied full-court pressure and got into the passing lanes.
Freshman guard Nikki Tom provided much needed energy off the bench and although she only finished with a single steal, her impact was felt as the Matadors struggled to pass around the perimeter. Forced turnovers and transition layups shrunk the CSUN lead and a pair of Cadee free throws tied the game 46-46 going into the final quarter.
Webb got into the paint to give UCI their first lead since the eight minute mark of the first quarter and Williams knocked down a triple to extend the lead to five.
Now in an aggressive 2-3 zone defense, the Anteaters forced CSUN’s offense to devolve to stagnation and another Cadee three in transition put the ‘Eaters up by double digits. After halftime, UCI went on a 40-15 run to lead 60-49. They won 65-52.
UCI head coach Tamara Inoue spoke about her team’s effort in the comeback win.
“We just missed a lot of easy bunnies early on, and we didn’t go get rebounds… [In the second half], the defense put out the [full-court pressure] a little more and overall, just more aggressive.”
Inoue also gave high praise to Cadee on her performance.
“We just kept looking for Jayde Cadee today… six for 11 on three’s… That’s pretty tough, right? She’s really good about hunting her three’s and she’s continuing to do that.”
UCI improved to 8-2 in Big West conference play and hopes to extend their winning streak to five when they take on the UC Riverside Highlanders at the Student Recreation Center in Riverside at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 10.
Angus Wong is a Sports Staff Writer for the Winter 2022 quarter. He can be reached at anguscw@uci.edu.
James Huston is a Sports Staff Writer for the Winter 2022 quarter. He can be reached at hustonj@uci.edu.
